How low did we go? Q4 – 2018 Net Worth Update

This makes 12 quarters in a row since I started publishing Net Worth updates on this site and the first where our Net Worth has dropped over the course of 3 months. Even though we knew this would happen eventually, I am mildly surprised how quick it can turn. I can see why people who aren’t prepared to see their balance drop panic sell.

I will dedicate a full post to this – but seeing ~$15,000 at one point carved off your total in a short amount of time makes you take a hard look at two things

Emergency fund

Income Streams

I don’t know if this a correction, a bear market or a recession – but I want to make sure we can weather any of them. Looking at cash flow (through our 9-5 jobs) and our Emergency Fund felt like something we needed to do.

Before the Number fun, here are some random updates from the AE household

We had a great holiday season and got to spend time with every side of our family. In total we had 5 different Christmas events – it took us a full 2 days to put our house back together. I am convinced there is no such thing as relaxing with 2 kids under 2, but we got as close as possible.

Survived a 5-hour car ride each way with the two girls to visit some family for the holidays

We had some serious 4-month sleep regression going on for about a month. Mrs. AE and I alternated long nights with the littlest one. It’s crazy how fast you forget how shitty getting up multiple times in the middle of the night is.

Everyone is entering the new year healthy and that is what really matters

Numbers below!

For anyone that has not seen this done before, I hold myself accountable by posting my net worth progress for everyone to see. I firmly believe there is more value in setting and tracking goals, but like to check in on our progress quarterly.

Q4 $227,395.58 – 2018 Net Worth – DOWN $9,014.92

Breaking down the numbers:

Q4 was the first quarter we had a drop, a total of -3.81%

6.1% drop in our cash/invested assets

Total growth for 2018 was 21.2% – Can’t complain about that, most of that was due to our contributions with some debt dropping off.

I keep our house at the initial valuation after we built. It has definitely gone up since then but I want to keep the valuation conservative since it is not easy to get at the equity.